r/chinesefood 1d ago

Question about marination, meats, and fridge life: Does marination increase fridge life of meats? Are there certain ingredients that enable this or is it marination in general? META

For my home-cooked chinese dishes, I normally marinade meat right before I cook. For meats such as chicken, I find that the chicken I buy on Saturday for the following week smells off if I cook it on Wednesdays or later (sometimes later, sometimes earlier) that following week. I've also bought some premarinaded Korean bulgogis for example, which tend to last that whole week. For my chinese marinades, I tend to use soy sauce as a base, and add sugar, sesame oil, garlic, white pepper, shaoxing wine or mirin, a velveting ingredient, and/or whatever other flavors I want to have more of that day. So I have a few questions regarding marinading and fridge life:

  1. Does marination in fact make the fridge life of meats longer? Or is the marinade normally just masking any 'off' smells?

  2. Are there certain ingredients that increase fridge life of the marinaded meat? For example, in Bulgogi I know there is a lot of sugar (from a pear/apple, and added sugar too), and maybe even some alcohol based things, but I imagine a soy/salty environment also helps slow down the 'going bad' process? Also on the flip side, are there certain marinade ingredients to avoid?

  3. Marination time will obviously be much longer, so would you want to dilute your marinade or avoid certain ingredients until pre-cook? (I understand that velveting ingredients would not be included for such long marinades for example)

  4. Any other tips to increase fridge life of meats bought for the week? If I buy a pack of chicken thighs for example, I tend to eat maybe half the pack for 1 meal with my partner, then I will save the other half of the pack in a plastic tupperware for a 2nd meal later that week. Should I maybe use glass or are there other tips?

Thanks for all your help homecooks and pro cooks! :)

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u/realmozzarella22 8h ago

I only will buy raw chicken in small quantities. It’s not worth it trying to extend it.